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Hmmm.
I like the 'open borders' idea in theory, but it's one of those Bucky Fuller ideas, really - it only works if EVERYBODY does it, and at the minute, in some parts of the world, people are too scared to take that kind of a risk. It's the same with the idea of tolerance: we're actually fairly tolerant (relatively speaking...how long that remains the case is open to question) whereas countries like Saudi Arabia, for example, are too afraid of other ideas to allow them any space. Even ideas as old and decrepit as Xtianity are regarded as a threat.
In a curious way, I see all this, plus the comments of Blunkett and Fortuyn, as politicians struggling to grasp the importance of memetics. What, after all, was Fortuyn saying, if not that the Dutch should take measures to defend their own meme against being invaded and colonised (in the biological sense) by an alien idea-complex? Blunkett is similar: in his own cockeyed way, he's realised that it is not a good position, memetically speaking, for Muslims (and let's be clear - in the current context, when Blunkett talks about asylum seekers, that's what he means) to hide in self-contained enclaves, because an idea that can't cross-pollinate with other ideas will eventually decay into extreme negative forms and die (which is why I finally came down against Fortuyn's ideas - the Dutch libertarian meme should have found other ways to deal with the challenge of the Islamic meme, possibly by absorbing some of it's qualities). Unfortunately, Blunkett - or the media - or Blunkett, when communicating with the media - is unable to present this idea as anything other than tired old Norman Tebbitt style 'cricket test' bollocks.
This is also why I think the 'nation-building' classes Nick speaks of are a good idea. What's to stop us explaining, in these classes, that we fucked it up in the past, and are trying to put things right now? Let's face it: we have a lot of experience of doing things the wrong way, and we can warn people against that - but we also know what actually DOES work, and it would be wrong of us to deprive people of that.
I believe the best thing we can do to prevent further wars and terrorist activity is to share not just wealth and resources, but information, with the developing world. Not just the information that allows you to build a dam, a railway, or a water purifier either, but information on our theories of psychology, neurology, and culture. If people understand themselves better, they're more likely to understand other people, and less likely to want to kill them.
As usual, the politicos are one step behind. While Congress and Parliament discuss the ethics of genetics and cloning, memetics and the engineering of new idea complexes are, in fact, the challenge that radicals have to take up, if we're going to try and make the world more free.
And this may mean a lot of re-engineering on all sides. |
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